Creativity and Innovation Management- why products fail.

There is no sure fire route to commercial success but the probability of success can be increased. This is important for at least two reasons:

a)Resource Management. The Economist (2003) states that 3000 bright ideas result in 100 worthwhile projects, which are winnowed down to four development programmes. And four such development programmes are required to stand any chance of getting one winner.

b)Time Management. Whilst it is often the case that sufficient time is not taken to develop a product fully, there is always time to go back and fix mistakes. The cost of product re-engineering varies from the low to high billions.

There are a number of techniques that allow better problem identification and idea generation (creativity) and better idea selection, development and commercialisation (innovation).

Innovation strategies include:

a)Valuing ideas according to their type. Random ideas and those resulting from solution spotting have the highest success rates.

b)Measuring strategic, technical and competency fits with the organisation.

c)Measurement of ideas according to their impediments. A new type of cell phone will be infinitely easier to produce than a time machine. The Internet has a far lower take up in Africa than in Europe because of infrastructure deficiencies.

d)Carefully selecting what criteria is used to allow or disallow an idea at various stages of the development pipeline. Not allowing an idea (or releasing it too early) may not give that idea a chance to blossom. However, keeping it in the pipeline takes away valuable resources that may allow another idea to bloom.

e)Adequate consumer benefit analysis. Many ideas are simply developed before focused, practical and appropriate end-user needs are thought through.

These and other topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) from http://www.managing-creativity.com

Kal Bishop, MBA

**********************************

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author's name and site URL are retained.

About the Author

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com.

Kal Bishop
Creativity and Innovation Management- why products fail.

Other Articles:

Creativity as a treasure hunt
Its not enough to be creative, you have to be creative at something. Creativity is a doing, rather than a being. The doing comes from discovering goals, and achieving them. I say discovering goals, rather than setting goals, because were good at...
Creativity
Creativity can make joy into your life if you know how. When you face with some problem that can not be solved directly, do not throw that problem away, try to look what you have around you and find a way to relate them to the answer that you...
Creativity Management Organizational Culture
As idea generation is a cognitive activity, it follows that certain environments will inhibit that activity (and expression of) whilst others will foster it. Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst...
Creativity is a Lost Art
Are you tired of the same old programs? Does anyone have anything new and exciting? I receive tons of emails every day full of the same old"Get Rich Quick" programs.Fresh and creative ideas are needed. Any business idea needs to be...